Hi all ,
well when seals make love it is not for the faint hearted from a human perspective , quite rough in almost all cases i have seen so far .
I think for both stress as the female tries to appear and the bull has to keep an eye open for the other bulls that are normally lurking around .....
The eye of the bull is natural ...a kind of grayish overlay in one eye , might be injured .
Canon EOS 1Dx II
EF 500 IS L
Tripod
F 6,3 ; Iso 6400 ; 1/1000 sec
Processed with DPP 4 and PS CC 2017 ; slight crop for comp ; i could have removed some OOF pebbles for an overall cleaner look , but i decided that they should stay .
Thanks for looking and commenting to my previous posting .
Hi Andreas - Nice detail, tones and dof. I agree with you about not removing the pebbles . I do find the brighter area at the top drawing my eye though and perhaps a more pano crop would minimize that effect.
A beautiful shot with lovely tones. Your focus point and DoF is perfect as is the POV IMO. I like the open mouth on the male too. The bright horizon doesn't bother me at all. I suspect cropping it out would imbalance the composition.
PS, the fog in the eye might be cataracts.
The colours look great, the bull seal looks as though he has been fighting recently - possibly to earn his mating rights. the more I look the more I realise how well you have caught the detail, fine sand grains as opposed to lumps of sand are visible in the fur.
Hi Andreas, a good behavioural capture and I'm surprised at how much DoF you got at f/6.3, excellent detail, nice work. The low POV works and I'm glad the dark horizon did not insect the body/head of the seal. Is it more seals top right? Agree on not cleaning up the pebbles on this one.
You know how much I like your seal images and the emotion they often convey. This is another wonderful example of your work and so much is encompassed here, from the submissive writhing of the female to the dominant and aggressive look of the male. The scene appears somewhat painful and terrifying and there's a sense of imminent danger: you are in fact presenting us with something that often happens in nature and which might repel the odd viewer, but certainly not one who is able to appreciate its aesthetic value:) Apart from the behavioural aspect, there is also an element of "seriousness" in this frame which I quite like -not sure what causes it, perhaps it is the overdose of passion from the male or the powerlessness of the female.
I did not mention any technical aspects of this frame Andreas, I think all has been said above. Just wanted to share with you my thoughts and impressions and I hope the above makes sense to you, after all you were there...
Hard loving .....
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. I do find the brighter area at the top drawing my eye though and perhaps a more pano crop would minimize that effect.
